BrightView (NYSE:BV) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on the stock from $20.00 to $19.00. The stock had previously closed at $16.85, but opened at $14.79. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. BrightView shares last traded at $14.54, with a volume of 490,456 shares trading hands.

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut BrightView from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.27.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Kkr Group Partnership L.P. sold 11,600,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.40, for a total value of $167,040,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 21,533,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $310,076,971.20. This trade represents a 35.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BrightView

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of BrightView by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 82,520 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,319,000 after buying an additional 831 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in BrightView by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 50,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $805,000 after purchasing an additional 4,430 shares during the period. Telemark Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in BrightView by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC now owns 850,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,592,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its holdings in BrightView by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 358,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,731,000 after purchasing an additional 19,382 shares during the period. Finally, Monimus Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of BrightView during the 4th quarter valued at $1,413,000. 92.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BrightView Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $15.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of -757.62 and a beta of 1.27.

BrightView (NYSE:BV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.02. BrightView had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 8.29%. The company had revenue of $662.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.29 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.11 earnings per share. BrightView’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BrightView Holdings, Inc. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About BrightView

BrightView Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides commercial landscaping services in the United States. It operates through two segments, Maintenance Services and Development Services. The Maintenance Services segment delivers a suite of recurring commercial landscaping services, including mowing, gardening, mulching and snow removal, water management, irrigation maintenance, tree care, golf course maintenance, and specialty turf maintenance.